Games contracts to media houses arbitrary and biased: CAG

The CAG has questioned the deals between the CWG and certain media houses as the organising committee (OC) apparently resorted to pick-and-choose policy in the award of contracts worth over Rs 6.73 crore. The CAG, in its report, tabled in Parliament last week, has dubbed the process arbitrary and biased.

The CAG is more severe in its observations on the contract for creating a Games Time website, meant to put out real time information on sporting events, given to HT-Hungama - a consortium comprising Hindustan Times and Hungama. It has lambasted the process of awarding the contract to the consortium and said their work was deficient.

The website lacked speed and was not really updated with the latest information, the auditors said.

The website named Korea, Japan, Philippines and the US among the nations participating in the Games - but none of them did - and Commonwealth Games Federation head Mike Fennell went on record, saying "there is certainly a big problem with the official Games Time website". A benevolent OC overlooked the non-performance and did not encash the performance guarantee of Rs 0.29 crore. A contract tweaked in favour of HT-Hungama had no other provisions for penalties case of non-performance, the CAG said.

It said the bidding process was squeezed and completed within two months, leading to several irregularities. Among the three bidders, HT-Hungama's documentation was deficient but ignored by the technical committee. It led the CAG to conclude that the process was tailored in HT-Hungama's favour.

The contract for production and broadcasting of commercials was given to two news channels, CNN-IBN and NDTV. The CAG said the OC followed an arbitrary approach with no planning for specific channels, time slots and cost benefit analysis.

The OC considered proposals in an adhoc manner and as and when they were received.